Hasta La Ideas

A dilapidated car showroom in north-west London has been transformed into this flexible workspace by Hackney designers the Decorators and community initiative Meanwhile Space (+ slideshow).

Meanwhile Space set up the communal office for creatives to hire. Cottrell House is located on the ground floor of a vacant building close to the stadium and arenas in Wembley.

“The design of the space responds to the context of Wembley, whose landscape is regularly transformed by the large scale events of Wembley stadium,” said designers The Decorators.

A central table in the shape of the nearby national stadium can be surrounded by blue curtains to create a private meeting room.

The unit also contains a cafe, a shared studio, eight fixed desks and hot-desking spaces, which are hired out to more than one occupant to use at different times.

Metal-framed desks backed with peg board can be wheeled outside and used as stalls so designers can flaunt their wares during an event at the stadium.

Black and white tiles randomly pattern the floor, while smaller ones cover the circular columns in a similar style.

The space was built by volunteers in exchange for free membership at the venue.

More unusual offices on Dezeen include one where walls are peeled back to reveal meeting rooms and a Stockholm branding and design agency with surfaces that resemble cardboard boxes.

Photos are by Dosfotos.

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The following information was sent to us by the designers:

Cottrell House is an enterprise space in Wembley set up by Meanwhile Space and initiated by Brent Council to support local start-up businesses and entrepreneurs with affordable workspace.

Cottrell House overlooks the fast paced, large scale development of Wembley City and is almost invisible amongst the shadows of it’s grand structures. In these shadows, meanwhile projects like Cottrell House are providing local alternatives to inaccessible and intangible large scale development.

For this project The Decorators worked with Meanwhile Space to convert the ground floor of a prominent, long term vacant, building on Wembley Hill Road.

This former retail unit was rearranged to provide a small cafe, one shared studio for rent, eight fixed desks for hire and hot-desking space, catering for different needs and budgets.

The space was built with volunteers from Meanwhile Space’s Coming Soon Club, who gave time to the project in exchange for free membership days at Cottrell House.

The design of the space responds to the context of Wembley, whose landscape is regularly transformed by the large scale events of Wembley stadium.

A central round table with the profile of the stadium was built to give room to the many other things Wembley has to offer beyond its football matches.

The self-contained desk units can be wheeled outside and reconfigured as market stalls to provide an opportunity for makers of Wembley to sell and promote their work.

The post Cottrell House by The Decorators
and Meanwhile Space appeared first on Dezeen.